TWO POINTS OF VIEW - read past the first review for another opinion

To the familiar clarinet wail of “Rhapsody in Blue” and the enthusiastic applause of an anticipatory opening night audience, a stately Leslie Uggams came to Café Carlyle’s stage for “my first official New York soirée in eighteen years.”  Segueing into an uptempo medley of “There’s a Boat Dat’s Leaving Soon for New York” and “New York, New York,” her lovely voice and her vitality belied (or perhaps justified) the sixty years she’s been a performer.

By six years old, she was on a TV series with Ethel Waters.  By nine, she was sharing the stage at the legendary Apollo Theater with headliners such as Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington.  Uggams’ program title refers to her “uptown” Washington Heights and Harlem roots and her later “downtown” Broadway and TV successes that earned her a Tony award, another Tony nomination and an Emmy.  Interwoven with a song list that varied from a rollicking “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” to a magnificently touching “I Wanna Be Around,” Uggams recounted highlights of her career, bringing frequent sighs of recognition and nostalgia from her audience.

Musical Director Don Rebic was assisted by an able foursome of instrumentalists.  Aaron Heick on woodwinds, Steve Bargonetti on guitar, bassist Ray Kidlay and drummer Buddy Williams each had a chance to shine. Williams' solo percussion, in particular, backing Uggams’ rendition of “Hello Young Lovers,” was singular, imaginative and effective.

Café Carlyle is one of New York’s warmest and coziest cabaret venues, and Uggams’ performance there was her first ever.  As she becomes more familiar with the room and her show, two less-than-perfect areas should be easily fixed.  With some numbers, her delivery was too “big” for the intimate surroundings. Coming down a notch on those few songs would make them significantly more effective.  And her patter, apparently scripted by director Michael Bush, seemed to stray too often into an episodic “and then I wrote” mode.  Still, such ungainliness should almost certainly vanish as Uggams becomes less dependent on Bush’s scripting.  That being said, Uggams is a joy and Leslie Uggams: Uptown Downtown a “don’t miss” engagement.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
March 30, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org

Comparisons are virtually inevitable so that there was little surprise when, toward the end of Leslie Uggams’ debut show at the Cafe Carlyle, she described her most recent project: a show about Lena Horne entitled Stormy Weather.  It has already broken box office records in Philadelphia and San Francisco, and she expressed the hope that it would soon come “home” to New York.

Like Horne, Uggams is a beautiful, elegant, and light-skinned African-American woman.  Uggams, however, has the far better voice, one with enormous strength and range. She can belt out a song and effortlessly segue from a mellow number to a rapid, jazzed-up version of it, as she did with “Them There Eyes.”  An a cappella version of “Hello Young Lovers” with a dynamic drum accompaniment revealed that she can easily stay on key without musical accompaniment. Her interpretation of lyrics was impeccable and uninhibited.  Her energy on stage was almost over the top, so that it was something of a relief when she slowed down in such numbers as “My Own Morning.” And she made the transition from theater and concerts to cabaret effortlessly, maintaining contact with her audience and graciously acknowledging their enthusiastic response to her.

Uggams’ show title, Uptown Downtown, loosely traces her journey from her early neighborhood (Washington Heights) and her years of performing at the Apollo Theater, to stardom on Broadway that she refers to without false modesty.  And here the contrast with Lena Horne is most telling.  For Uggams has no reason to do what Horne had to do until virtually the end of her long career: repress and conceal the Harlem girl. James Gavin’s biography of Lena Horne, also entitled Stormy Weather, depicts in great detail  the psychological and social toll such a need to be “white” exacted from Horne. Horne was, according to Gavin, quite bitter about the pain she endured in paving the way for performers like Uggams, for Horne herself never achieved the success she sought.

None of this is overt in Leslie Uggams’ Carlyle show.  But it is perhaps implicit in that in Uptown Downtown, uptown prevails.  With delight, Uggams describes how, as a young performer, she was privileged to be in the company of such notables as Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald.  Uggams’ version of “I Wanna Be Around” is in part a tribute to another star who sang it, and whom as a young girl Uggams sang it with, Dinah Washington.  It is a song open to many styles of delivery, but Uggams sang in the style of these jazz artists, and even in her patter she sounded more like Harlem than downtown New York.  Uggams’ roots may be uptown, but despite her origins, the “uptown performer” seemed more a character this consummate actress was playing (Uggams is a Tony winner) than her present, sophisticated self.

This reviewer would have welcomed more balance between uptown and downtown. There was a lot of rapid syncopation in this show, and slow moments, as in the beautifully sung “Summertime” and “If He Walked Into My Life,” were welcome. But Uggams is a star and she delivered a show that made clear what that stardom is based on.

Ms. Uggams continues at Café Carlyle thorugh April 17.

Barbara Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
March 30, 2010
www.cabaretscenes.org